July 27 The reason for this expedition.

A walk from Diddlebury and a wedding.  (The latter rather than the former being the reason for the trip.)

For some reason I had a really crappy nights sleep.  No idea why but I survived the day OK so, to quote Buddy Holly, I guess it doesn't matter anymore.  Here are a couple of images of Tugford Farm where we are residing for the next week.  For some reason our car is parked in front of the other cottage!

The place was very comfortable and the hosts excellent.  Strongly recommended

Once we were awake and breakfasted we took off on a reconnaissance for the wedding we were attending in the evening (which is mainly why we were in the UK and certainly why we were visiting Shropshire).  Wyndham had offered two routes from Tugford to Henley Farm:

•  the easy one (to the main road and then to Craven Arms and then on the A49 to the sign posts to Acton Scott); or
•  the shorter and more scenic route the locals would take.  When I asked him to describe it, it was something like “Turn left out of the gate, take the next right then next left then third right, next left next right which gets you to the main road where you go straight across, next left, second …... “. 

I thought that particularly with a couple of beers under my belt the easy option was definitely the go, so we tried that out, using instructions Hilary-the-Bride had sent for getting to the venue from Church Stretton.  With one slight hiccup (which was my fault) they worked well, and we found a slight short cut for  approaching from Craven Arms.

On the way home we stopped at Craven Arms to snap the pub 

and what we thought was a War Memorial but was in fact an ornate mileage sign. 

A work of art seemed to celebrate sheep but we have yet to establish why that is so. 

I have since found a blogpost referring to creation of the sculpture in 2004-05, and Google suggests there was an important sheep market in the town in the past (perhaps it still happens).

We then parked in the Sun pub car park in Corfton to do a walk.  The total walk in our big book was 10km which we thought too much but I found an extract of it – about 5km which looked quite interesting.  I rated it OK as a walk because most of it was in farmland giving an up close look at smoe sheep - perhaps the Clun Forest breed which originates in this area.

They had all been tupped (or so I assess from the blue marks) which wasn't bad going given only 36 days of declining day length, given that 21 such days are required to initiate oestrus.

The Diddlebury Common, which I had expected to be heath was in fact a wood – on a damn steep hillside.  

So very few wildflowers were seen and even less birds (apart from a pair of buzzards near the start which I suspect were (or had been) nesting). 

There were some good views from the high points but there was a lot of haze, suggesting the forecast of rain later was on the money.  It was interesting that the right of way cut across a field of wheat rather than going around the edge.

On getting back to the pub,

which is also the site of the Corvedale Brewery we repaid them for the parking facility by having  couple of small glasses of their product.  These were.

•                     Dark and Delicious which is a dark bitter and very potable; and

•                     Norman's Pride, a fuller bodied bitter.

One wall of the saloon bar was covered with awards the brewery had won.  Given that it is a tiny brewery based on the pub they have done very well.

After changing into a suit and tie for the ceremony we toddled back to Henley Farm.  This is the lane to Diddlesbury

and this one is the A49. 

The difference is not great!  The instructions concluded with “go though the green gates”. This would normally mean go though the gap which is created when the gates are opened” but in this case the gates were shut (unlike for our rehearsal this morning).  Fortunately Frances spotted another opening a bit further along the paddock.  This enabled us to walk past the rent-a-dunny (sorry, luxury toilet).

There was then a period of milling around chatting to folk we hasn't seen for quite a while and taking official photos.  The ceremony started – and I noticed clouds building over Wenlock Edge so I suggested to Frances that we get seats near the marquee.  About 20 minutes into the proceedings and the sky started to emulate the Friesian in the adjoining paddock

so the tent was occupied rather quickly.  After picturing the bride's siblings

my camera battery ran out so you are saved any more images of the event.   We ended up sitting surrounded by members of the UK contingent and very pleasant and interesting folk they were.  However I couldn't do any serious drinking – driving along wet English roads with a skinful is not at all a good idea.  Taken in conjunction with my RS previous night's sleep we left proceedings fairly soon after the speeches concluded and before the dancing started.  It appeared that the music was to be supplied by some live musicians – not, unfortunately, by a group with a name such as the Molecatcher's Ferret. 

During the evening I had a couple of pints of Shropshire Gold Ale (served somewhat warmer than would be tolerated in Australia) which was a very pleasant standard (3.8%) real ale but had moved on to water by the time we left! As had the weather.

Bird of the Day: Buzzard above Corfton

Building of the day:  Tugford Farm Cottage

Garden of the Day: None seen.

Bad taste of the Day: Weather in the evening

View of the Day:  From the high point on Diddlebury Common

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